I could think of another good reason why the Maiden wouldn’t be asking any more favours, on account of her dying in my arms years before, but I took the priestess’ point.
‘Good,’ I mumbled. My quest was complicated enough with just Sigmar and Grungni’s Smiths involved. Once the likes of the Everqueen and the Undying King started throwing their champions into the mix then I just knew things were going to get difficult for me. This would be prescient, as it turned out, but a tale for another time. ‘Maybe, then, we can help each other.’
‘Maybe we can.’
‘I don’t suppose you’ve had any luck finding him yet.’
‘If I had then we would not be talking. There are times when it feels as though he has been swallowed by the realmsphere. His power distorts the ghurlines, like a great eagle upon a tree that cannot bear its weight. I see the realm bowing and the leaves where they fall, but of the beast itself, nothing.’ Her voice grew angry. ‘I had been hoping to shadow one of his war bands, to unearth some clue in their idle chittering and their careless spoor, but so far…’ She glanced between Hamuz and me. ‘Then someone killed them all.’
Hamuz began to chuckle before it dawned on him that the priestess might not be joking. He coughed and slurped on his qahua.
‘In perseverance we endure,’ Brychen sighed. ‘I will find another claw of the great beast to follow. There is no shortage, if you have the eyes to look.’
Aeygar issued a muted caw of agreement.
‘We were journeying to Ikrit’s lair,’ I said, frowning at the aetar’s siding with the Wild Harvest priestess.
‘You would be wasting your time,’ said Brychen. ‘I wished to retrieve my brother’s body and return him to our hearth trees, and so ventured inside myself after I had dealt with you.’ She spoke so straightforwardly, you could almost overlook the fact that she was talking about driving a spear through my neck. Almost. ‘I found no trace of him there, or of Ikrit, only a handful of skaven still lurking in the darkest burrows. I slew them all.’
‘I think he’s still there,’ I said. I thought of the vision I had had back in Sigmaron, of pulsing, liquid darkness. Cocooned. Buried. ‘I think he’s hidden somewhere, recovering his strength.’
The princess issued another quiet crow.
‘That’s right,’ I said, waving my finger at the priestess. ‘He’s not in the Gorwood. Not with the entire strength of the aetar scouring it for him.’
‘You understand her?’ Brychen asked, surprised.
‘Can’t you?’
‘Of course I can. I am just surprised that you appear to be able to.’
Ignore the bird-thing. Listen to the Gorkai.
I blinked, looking around for the source of the voice.
‘What did you say?’
‘Lord?’ said Hamuz. I happened to be facing his way.
Was I hearing things now? Was this the next stage of my deterioration until gibbering infirmity and dissolution took hold? I frowned down into the fire and resolved that I would never pass out of the realms that way. I would capture Ikrit and see myself restored, or I would fail in the most spectacular manner I could achieve.
‘Never mind.’ I glanced across at Brychen. ‘How far is the mountain from here anyway?’
‘A few days,’ said Brychen. ‘But I can move through woodland and marsh as you cannot. For your army? Weeks. Maybe more.’
‘Princess Aeygar can cover that ground more swiftly than you can,’ I said, feeling the need to defend my quest’s honour.
‘And yet she cannot bear the entirety of the Blue Skies,’ said Barbarus, turning slowly to face the campfire. Stormcast hearing is uncannily keen. ‘Nor can we leave them here to the skaven while you continue on your quest.’
In actual fact that was exactly what I’d been planning on doing, but I couldn’t very well argue for it now and let Barbarus look like the hero.
‘You’re right, of course.’ I bit my lip, as though thinking. ‘You should remain here with them. Your wings are damaged, and I suspect that we will be too heavy for Aeygar to carry both of us.’ I saw the shadowy outline of the princess’ beak open, as if to say something, and so hurriedly carried on. ‘If we leave at first light then Aeygar can have us there and back again before nightfall. You’ll not even notice we were gone, brother.’
‘If this is some ploy to claim all the glory for yourself…’ Barbarus growled.
I put my hand over my heart in a convincingly wounded ‘who, me?’
‘You can’t go alone,’ said Hamuz.
‘I’m touched by your concern, but it’s misplaced. There’s nothing in this realm that Hamilcar Bear-Eater cannot handle, but, should there be something…’ I turned towards the looming shadow of the princess. ‘Well, they will have Aeygar to deal with.’
The princess cawed, menacingly.
‘I’ve not seen the tunnels you’re talking about, lord, so with all due respect, do you think the aetar will be able to join you below? If it’s all the same with you, then I will join you.’
I should have just said no. I know that. The Freeguild captain had no place where I was planning on going, but where others took providential signs from timely storms and falling stars, I have always seen my god in the heart of his people. He was bold enough to want to come, so let him come. Who was I to deny such honest courage?
And I couldn’t say that I would not appreciate having someone to talk to on the way.
‘I will go too,’ said Brychen.
‘I thought you said it was a waste of time?’
‘And it will be. But with an aetar’s wings it will not be a waste of much time. And if I did miss something, if there is any chance at all, then it is worth that much.’
I felt a chittering in my ear and turned again towards the fire.
Nothing but shadow awaits you there, Bear-Eater. I am long scurried.
I focused on the flames until my eyes started to tremble. I kept my voice low. ‘Who are you?’
Fire flickering. A crackling laugh.
The better part of your soul.
‘Who is that?’ said Brychen.
I blinked, disoriented, and looked up, but it seemed that the priestess had been talking to Hamuz, rather than hearing the strange voice that spoke to me. In answer, the Jerech captain turned his shoulder to show off the glassmark glittering against the scarred muscle of his bicep.
‘My daughter,’ he said.
‘You have a daughter?’ I said.
‘Yes, lord.’ Hamuz brightened even as he said it. ‘She will be seventeen this winter.’
‘In Jercho?’
‘No, my lord. She was born here. I met my wife in Azyr. She is Gorkomon, in temper if not in blood.’
The men around the campfire gave knowing chuckles.
Suddenly I did not feel so at one with them as I had. Even in my life before this one I had never been blessed with children. It was not something I could share with them.
‘We’ve been in the Gorwood seventeen years?’ I said.
The Jerech chuckled, assuming I was joking.
My gaze drifted back to the fire. It was not speaking to me now. I had never, before that moment, truly considered that my actions could have… consequences. I wondered what would become of Hamuz’s family because he had chosen me over Frankos of the Heavens Forge?
What would Vikaeus and the Knights Merciless do?
Better to go back-back. Surrender yourself.
‘It’s a long time since I heard from my conscience,’ I murmured to myself. ‘But I don’t remember it speaking like a skaven.’
‘Bear-Eater?’ said Brychen.
I could tell from her concerned tone that she sensed something amiss with me, but her sense would have probed no deeper than that surface ripple. The gods alone held the power to fashion mortal souls, to shape them into forms more useful or pleasing to their designs as you or I might work leather or clay, but not even they possess the art to peer inside and know a soul. I was getting the feeling that my soul was somehow scattered between two bodies, mine and Ikrit’s, but it was still just one soul, impermeable to even the most gifted of scryers.